The following is a summary of information received from the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment by e-mail:
The licensee reported a damaged Troxler 3430 portable moisture density gauge (SN:24886) containing Am-241/Be (SN:4721079) and Cs-137 (SN:757025) sources. The gauge fell out of the back of a truck onto an interstate highway while in transit. Pieces of the gauge are on the interstate as a result of vehicles running over the gauge and the licensee is attempting to retrieve them. The licensee intends to contact the police to help cordon off the affected area to support retrieval of the remaining pieces and conduct surveys. A search is ongoing and some of the pieces of the gauge have not been accounted for.
CO Incident Number: CO220013
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A 'Less than Cat 3' LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Sources that are "Less than
IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as
moisture density gauges or thickness
gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly - although it is unlikely - temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf